Once Upon a Midnight Dearie
by TheNeedsOfMany
Summary: Rumpelstiltskin gets a midnight visitor...from a raven! A OUAT and The Raven crossover. COMPLETE.


**A/N: Midnight inspirations are the best! I came up with the idea for this story last night, and I had to quickly scribble down the plot before bed. I basically had this whole thing wrote in my head by the time I came home from work LOL**

**Okay, so this is my first crossover story...Once Upon a Time and Edgar Allen Poe's poem The Raven. It happens sometime after the OUAT episode Skin Deep...I'm going to say several months or so afterwards. And yes, it's a rather odd combination...but bear with me here! **

**I really hope you enjoy what I've put together for you. Please let me know what you think of it! **

Rumpelstiltskin hated midnight. There was nothing for him to do, no deals to be made. Most of the Enchanted Forest was asleep, except him. He didn't need sleep. He wanted sleep though. _Oh, for a few hours of unconsciousness to deaden this pain inside..._he thought to himself bitterly.

Even spinning didn't help him forget anymore. Watching the wheel spin around and around used to mesmerize him. Now it was just a giant reminder of how his life was going nowhere. _Stagnant._

_She_ had been right. He had more spun more straw into gold than he could ever spend. She was always right. He had three of his dungeons that just held the golden straw. Nowadays he'd just change the gold back into straw and start over again.

A slight scratching on the door to his castle broke his reverie. _A visitor at this hour?_ he thought. "Go away!" he snarled, annoyed at the intrusion. Even though he was nowhere near the castle door, his voice carried through the magic-lined corridors to the front doorstep.

The scratching continued. So slight a sound it was that he nearly thought his mind was playing tricks on him. Maybe it was.

He stood up from his place at the spinning wheel. A breeze blew through an open window, rustling the deep plum colored curtains covering it. _Rumpelstiltskin_. He heard his name in the wind. "Belle?" he spoke aloud, his voice cracking as he spoke _her_ name.

In a flash, he was out of the room and running for the castle door. His heart was thudding in his chest. Could it be?

He flung open the doors with a flick of magic. He peered into the night. "Belle?" he whispered.

There was only darkness, nothing more. Rumpelstiltskin stood there for some time, hoping he was not imagining things. Wishing he was not slowly going crazy for missing _her_.

Finally, he stepped back inside and shut the door. Slowly, he wandered back in a bit of a haze to his room. He shut the open window forcefully, angry at himself for letting his mind wander to that place again. Angry at the wind for taunting him so.

As soon as he sat back down at his spinning wheel, he heard the tap-tap-tap of something at the window. _'Tis the wind, nothing more, _he tried to convince himself, but to no avail. His curiosity got the better of him.

He walked to the window and threw it open. His eyes widened in disbelief. There sat a raven!

His eyes narrowed suspiciously and stood back. The raven flew into the room and perched himself on the two puppets he had collected long ago. It stared at him unblinkingly. A chill went down Rumpelstiltskin's spine.

He had always been wary of ravens. _Okay, so I'm wary of most birds_, he admitted to himself. There had been that run-in with an ugly duckling many years ago...

He had to smile despite himself at the bird perched on the head of the male puppet. "Well, you're a bold fellow, aren't you, dearie?" He stepped cautiously towards the bird. "What be your name?"

_Great, talking to a bird. Better than talking to myself I suppose._ He giggled.

"_Nevermore_..." Rumpelstiltskin blinked. Did that bird just speak?

But what did it mean? Who gives a bird the name of Nevermore? _Maybe the same type person who names their child Rumpelstiltskin?_

Rumpelstiltskin eyed the bird one last time, then went back to his spinning wheel. The raven stood there on its perch, still staring at him. There was a strange comfort to having it there in the room with him, after being alone for so long. "Everyone else always leaves me. It'll probably be gone by morning-time...just as everyone else does." he said disparagingly.

The bird spoke again. "_Nevermore_."

Rumpelstiltskin laughed darkly at the raven. "Aye, you know much of sorrow, don't you?" He spread his arms out wide with a dramatic flair. "You've come to the right place then, dearie."

He stood up and crossed the room to where his favorite chair was. He dragged it across the room to where the raven was, and sat down. He stared at the raven for some time. What sorrows had this creature experienced? Where had it come from? Why did it choose _him_? What did it mean by '_Nevermore_"?

He leaped from his chair and pointed his finger at the bird. "I know what you're doing. You were sent from whence you came to help me forget about _her_, am I right?" he said triumphantly. "The distraction...a bit of magic to help me forget!" He laughed loudly. "Then let me have it! Let me forget! I want nothing more of this bitter sorrow!"

"_Nevermore..."_

Rumpelstiltskin's face crumpled slightly. _Aye, I suppose that would be too easy, wouldn't it?_

"Then tell me please, if there is no magic cure for this hole in my soul that _she _once filled, will I one day the pain be eased on its own?"

"_Nevermore_..."

He grew desperate. "Please, I implore you! If I am to not to have relief from my sorrow in this life, will I be with Belle-" his voice shook saying her name "-in the next?"

"_Nevermore_..."

Rumpelstiltskin became frenzied. Angry and hurt, he shrieked at the raven, who still sat calmly on its perch. "Be gone with you!" He pointed towards the still-open window. "I will hear no more of this, you fiend! Go back to the dark night where you came from." He hissed. "Leave me alone with my loneliness."

He stalked out of the room, and with a flick of the wrist, slammed the door behind him. He stalked up the stairs to his tower room, sank to the cold stone floor, and wept for himself, and his Belle.

The raven watched as a broken Rumpelstiltskin left the room. It fluttered its wings and flew out the window, straight for another castle.

The bird reached a balcony of the castle and glided gently to the floor. A plume of smoke arose from it and consumed it. Out of the plume of smoke stepped Regina. She smirked as she pulled a lone jet-black feather from her hair. Twirling the feather between her fingers, she stared off into the distance towards Rumpelstiltskin's castle. She thought about the young girl she held captive in one of her tower's prisons and said with an evil smile, "Really, Rumpel, that was just too easy."


End file.
